Have your say & ask the experts

nice work prof, thats a big from me

On the reviews page for the HDD drive you recommend at Dabs (which I've ordered BTW - thanks!), someone has written:

"One thing to note if you are upgrading your PS3; have the latest firmware update ready on USB memory stick or removable HD. All the upgrade guides omit this information. Installing the new drive into the PS3 didn't bring up any "reformat drive" options, until I had the 2.41 firmware available via USB memstick."

 ...obviously you didn't have this problem, do you (or anyone else for that matter) know whether this is a genuine issue?

 Cheers!

Yup, I am having to do this. Rather than the nice "The hard disk must be formatted" screen you got (and can be seen in your guide), I'm looking at "The system software cannot be run correctly"! Ooh er missus!

Not a problem, though, you just need to "insert storage media that contains update data of version 2.42 or later", which can be downloaded from here:

http://uk.playstation.com/help-support/ps3/system-software/download/ (130.4MB)

It's a PUP file, and you have to follow these instructions for the PS3 to see it on your Flash drive or USB hard disk: 

To transfer the update data to your PLAYSTATION 3, save the file to a PS3 compatible storage device such as Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, USB drive or PSP.

Before starting, use your PC to create a folder named 'PS3' on the storage media or USB device. Within the folder, create a folder named 'UPDATE' (This folder name is case sensitive and must appear in all capital letters). Once the UPDATE folder has been created, download the PS3 system software update to this location.

Once the update data has been saved, disconnect the storage device and connect it to your PS3 via the slots under the slot cover or the USB connectors depending on the device you're using.

Once you've done that, the PS3 can find it and holding down Select and Start together for five seconds (as per the on-screen instructions) starts the format, which took less than a minute for me (same drive as professorhat) then it restarts and you install the system software.

Might be worth updating the guide? I took a photo of the screen I got if you want it.

Cheers

Robert

A lot of people might decide to store loads of music, videos and photos on their PS3 though, so it would be very useful for this.

I have spent quite a while taking music off another hard drive and importing into the PS3, i noticed that they didn't all go to the correct artist which was due to some of them not being written into the file, due to this i made up playlists for each artis,question is when you do a back up does it keep everything in their playlist or not.

Also i wonder if anyone has name of a god program for compressing DVD to VI or MP4 as there are a few collections i would like to store on the PS3, have tried DVD shrink but it cut it down to 3gb and it wasn't very god quality.

Question: Can you not just add extra hard disk by plugging into the USB port of your PS3. Also, i have addtional hard disk for my computer. Can this content be accessed through my playstation 3 or is this not possible, due to different operating programmes?

I usually steer clear of Sony products, but even i am tempted by a PS3. Not to fussed on games, but as a BD player and with its DVD upscaling its seems a worthy upgrade!

swampydrill:

question is when you do a back up does it keep everything in their playlist or not.

swampydrill:

Also i wonder if anyone has name of a god program for compressing DVD to VI or MP4 as there are a few collections i would like to store on the PS3, have tried DVD shrink but it cut it down to 3gb and it wasn't very god quality.

soulstyle:

Question: Can you not just add extra hard disk by plugging into the USB port of your PS3. Also, i have addtional hard disk for my computer. Can this content be accessed through my playstation 3 or is this not possible, due to different operating programmes?

As for accessing things from your PC, this is indeed possible. It can be done using Windows Media Player, or you can get some DLNA enabled software like Twonky Media or TVersity if you don't want to be tied to WMP (understandable!).

As for streaming it, the PS3 can't communicate with iTunes directly unfortunately (so no playlists), but you can add a DLNA client to your PC like the ones mentioned above and share your iTunes Library music folder through this software. This will give you the same access as plugging the USB drive directly in (in terms of appearance of the folder structure). Be aware, any DRM protected files aren't going to work though.

EDIT - might be worth reading through this post which looks at other options with streaming music from PC to PS3.